How to properly optimize Windows 7?

Are you aware of any good optimization tips for Windows 7 SP1? Although it is very stable at the moment, it just seems a bit sluggish on good hardware (i5, 1TB HDD, lots of RAM). I'm particularly concerned about application loading times and multitasking. I've already read how to disable SuperFetch, but I couldn't notice any improvements. Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance.

You could try and disable sounds. Also, disable the Aero Theme if you want to conserve RAM. Do you have a fresh installation of Windows? I`m asking this, because it seems weird that the OS would run sluggish on a setup like yours. On an i5 with lots of RAM even a very old installation should run very well.